The Brisbane Lions today unveiled their guernsey for season 2015 and beyond, officially marking a return to wearing the Club’s original guernsey, that was designed at the time of the 1997 merger and was famously worn by the Club during its 3-Peat premiership success from 2001-2003.
Club Vice-Captain, Tom Rockliff, was on hand this morning to launch the guernsey which not only represents the most successful period in Club history, but also the first 13 years of the Club’s existence as a merged entity.
Throughout the Lions combined 128-year history – made up from Fitzroy, the Bears and the merged Brisbane Lions – the Club has worn a variety of different guernsey designs.
The only other guernsey that you could argue has been engrained with such ‘greatness’ as the original guernsey, is the one worn by Fitzroy at the beginning of the VFL competition, which was a canvas lace-up style and reaped a total of four premierships (1898, 1899, 1904 and 1905).
For years, Lions supporter groups have passionately campaigned to revert to the original jumper, with 71.4 per cent of 3000 survey correspondents last year requesting the strip worn in the three premierships, between 2001 and 2003, brought back.
The jumper will make a welcome return to the field in 2015, after members voted overwhelming in favour of a change back at the Annual General Meeting held at the Gabba last year.
Only a handful of members opposed the resolution.
The original Brisbane Lions guernsey was previously worn for 13 years from 1997-2009 before receiving a ‘facelift’ on the eve of the 2010 season.
The front-facing Lion guernsey worn between 2010-2013, will be consigned to history along with a handful of other jumper designs from the Fitzroy and Bears days.
A commemorative 3-Peat guernsey was previously worn twice during the 2013 season to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Club’s hat-trick of premierships.
Rockliff said the playing group was excited by the prospect of donning the original guernsey.
“The original guernsey, which we wore throughout the 3-peat era, means a lot to plenty of people and represents such a successful period in the history of our Club,” said Rockliff.
“As a playing group we really feel like we have an opportunity to forge our own history in it.
“We want the jumper to represent the success of our current group, not just be a reminder of our past success.
“The Club is in a really exciting place at the moment and I think it’s the perfect time for the orignal guernsey to return.
“We want to build our own dynasty and we hope to do it wearing this jumper.
“I know the return of the orignal guernsey was something our supporters are really passionate about and we are looking forward to doing them proud every single time we pull it on.”
